Malthus and Boserup

Malthus and Boserup

1. Malthus

   • Malthus' Theory
     • Malthus stated that food is a significant factor on human existence
     • He argued that human population was growing at a rate that the Earth could not keep up to produce enough food
     • To obtain a sustainable planet, the number of population and sources of food should keep at an equal rate
     • It was believed that population grows at a geometric rate
       • 1 2 4 8 16 32
       • It was believed that food grew at an arithmetic rate
         • 1 2 3 4 5 6
   • Malthus' background
     • Influential public figure who expressed theories on population growth
     • Studied for a master's degree at Cambridge in 1771
     • Became a professor of history and political economics in 1806
     • His best known work was 'An Essay on the Principle of Population' published in 1798
   • What were the checks?
     • Malthus though that once population had reached a certain point, that population growth would be slowed down by various factors (positive and negative checks)
       • Negative checks- Factors that decreased the birth rate
         • Couples waiting longer to get married
       • Positive checks- Factors that increased the death rate
         • Famine
   • Was he correct?
     • In 1974, global population reached 4 billion people, five billion by 1987 and by 1999 reached 6 billion. This supports the idea of Malthus' geometric rate as the population is becoming bigger in smaller intervals
     • Within Africa there is a population crisis, which involves a lack of food, overcrowded schools and a number of different wars. In this case, Malthus' prediction on strain of resources was correct
     • More economically developed countries such as the Uk has avoided a population crisis due to its wealth. Malthus did not predict that money would be a key part in development to allow countries to use their resources more effectively

2. Boserup

   • Boserup's background
     • Respected Danish economist
     • Studied at the University of Copenhagen, in 1929 where she studied theoretical economics
   • Was she correct?
     • It has been argued that an advance in technology such as GM crops, irrigation and the 'Green revolution' were down to the pressure of finding resources
     • Boserup did not accept that and increase in population could lead to unsustainable sources of farming
   • Boserup's Theory
     • Boserup believed that with population growth, comes an advance in technology and knowledge, allowing us to increase resource supplies
     • Boserup decided that the pressure of a growing population forced us to become more productive and efficient

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